STAKENAS WINS HOBBY SERVICE AWARD: 25 Years after he spoke at the initial Avaloncon meeting offering to run a Junior’s event for the new convention, Ray Stakenas is still at it…having completed his 25th consecutive tour in the Avaloncon/WBC Juniors room. 25 years of service at anything is nothing to sneeze at, let alone herding rug rats, so the BPA Board of Directors decided it was high time we recognized that effort by naming Ray our 16th recipient of the BPA’s Hobby Service Award.

WBC 2015 LANCASTER SWAN SONG: Our tenth, and perhaps last, year in Lancaster set another attendance record despite, or perhaps due to, all the attendant gnashing of teeth over the coming venue change. Each year of our decade in Dutch Country saw small attendance gains despite infrastructure challenges and 2015 was no exception. In all, players from over 50 states and Canadian provinces plus a record 23 nations attended in 2015. 24 events again drew triple-digit participation—but ten more were knocking on the door with 90–99 entrants. All of the scheduled 164 events achieved tournament status with fields ranging from a minimum of eight to 302 players for Ticket to Ride! This year’s champions are now listed online. A more complete listing of the top six places, updated laurel totals, photos and anecdotes for every event as only WBC does them will appear on our website in November.

18 reigning WBC champions successfully defended their titles, led by the Master, James Pei, who extended his dominance in For The People to seven straight years to maintain his hold on WBC’s longest current winning streak. Curt Collins II lost his status as his closest pursuer when he failed to win his fifth consecutive Union Pacific title—finishing third. Peter Gurneau (Combat Commander) and Eric Wrobel (Merchant of Venus) also fell off the pace, failing to win their fourth consecutive title in their respective specialties. Perennial 18XX champ Bruce Beard thus became Pei’s closest pursuer with his third straight 8XX title.

On the other side of the title spectrum, 37 claimed their first WBC title of any kind. 110 players earned their first laurels to claim genuine contender bonafides in the years to come. 14 gents managed to win two events each while two managed to claim three titles: Ewan McNay (Britannia, Ingenious and Robo Rally) and Richard Boyes (Race For the Galaxy, Roll For the Galaxy, and Small World).

2016 WBC VENUE CHANGE OFF TO ROUSING START: The Seven Springs Mountain Resort began accepting WBC 2016 reservations shortly after WBC 2015 ended and did a whirlwind business—filling 79% of our room block in less than two weeks—and topping our previous room reservation total in the host hotel by nearly 60% in the process. This bodes well for an outstanding start in our new venue. Make your reservations for 2016 on our Hotel page to enjoy our Group Code discount and rebates.

WBC CONVENTION DIRECTOR OPENING: Don Greenwood announced at the recent BPA Annual Meeting that he would be hanging up his CD hat following the transition year of 2016. Seven Springs will be his 26th consecutive year at the helm of this enterprise and he will be passing the torch sometime in the coming year following WBC 2016. The BPA Board of Directors will be hiring a new CD in the months ahead. Those who wish to be considered for the job should send their resume and a cover letter expressing their qualifications and vision for the job along with their salary requirements to conventiondirector@boardgamers.org no later than Sep. 15, 2015.

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR: The fifth installment of Don’s infrequent outreach to the membership, From the Director's Chair, is now posted. Those not interested in the thinking behind the current venue change decisions need not bother, but for those who want to see "how the sausage is made” and catch a glimpse of the decision making process that led to the Seven Springs decision, it is a must read. Much of what you read on the internet is subjective opinion and full of errors that pass for fact when they are not directly refuted. You may not agree with the decisions we made, but the facts are borne of actual research and decades of experience with the subject. It is, if nothing else, our side of the story—told once—and we’re sticking to it.

WBC AUCTION RESULTS: The 2015 version of the WBC Auction sold all lots led by a record $560 bid for Jake Jacoby’s annual Circus Maximus miniature’s set. See the overview of Auction Sales and a list of Auction Sales by Lot online. Auction Store sales are NOT listed on line. If you want an accounting of your items individual sale prices, inquire at Treasurer@Boardgamers.org.

2015 ELECTION RESULTS: The membership returned three incumbents to another three-year term, albeit in the most closely contested election yet. Don Greenwood, Andy Lewis and Ken Whitesell won another term despite strong challenges from Tom McCorry, Chris Yaure and Joel Tamburo. The results were announced at the BPA Annual Meeting but the Vote totals and links to officer profiles can be found on the Election Results page. (Get more information on the 2015 Board of Directors page.) We thank all the candidates for their participation and all members who took the time to vote. Without sufficient participation by the membership we are unable to continue our Non-Profit Corporation status.

WBC HONORS: The coming months will unveil our annual awards for Sportsmanship and GM of the Year but we can’t do them justice without your input. Take a moment to tell us why someone you encountered should be considered for the Sportsmanship or GM of the Year Award by emailing us at conventiondirector@boardgamers.org.

WBC EVENT REPORTS IN PROGRESS: Event After Action Reports are still being collected and used to update 164 Event pages on our website for a scheduled November unveiling. Those GMs who have yet to fulfill that part of their obligation will be notified that the clock is ticking and that prize level and eligibility penalties will apply for those events whose GMs do not comply. WBC is unique among all gaming conventions for providing not only this coverage but also archiving such reports for posterity. Check out the BPA Archives section of the home page to check the progress of your favorite event over the past 15 years.

WBC 2016 EVENT SUBMISSIONS: After every WBC we get requests to add Game X to the events we offer. If only it were that simple. No event takes place without a dedicated volunteer GM to run it. No one gets paid to run events at WBC. if you want Game X, you need to step forward and offer to run it! The internet gives voice to those who can’t understand why WBC caps the number of its events. Of course, those folks can’t be found when it comes time to prepare pre- and post-event web pages, event kiosk, plaque art, and all the other bells and whistles we lavish on WBC event support. As long as we have more events than GMs, I’m not very sympathetic to calls for more events. So, unless you get motivated to lend a hand, we already have all the events we can handle. On the other hand, if you are such an enlightened individual who wants to contribute to the unique nature of WBC, start by reading our GM Guidelines. Then, when our monthly newsletter calls for event submissions submit the event form cited in that newsletter to get the process started. Our current event form is undergoing changes for the new 2016 venue so wait until we call for submissions, please.

KUDOS: Many thanks to all who leant a hand during our decade in Lancaster. The tireless efforts of our GMs goes without saying, but beyond those are the few who pitched in and helped with the less glorious jobs when needed to make all this happen. I won’t name them for fear of leaving someone out, but two recent ones come to mind whose efforts simply must be acknowledged. Keith Levy performed miracles in supervising the library inventory, packing and hand transport of games to Lampeter Hall. His crew of volunteers—you know who you were—worked through the wee hours to get the library squared away, and Harry Flawd then prepared it for shipment to Seven Springs. We simply couldn’t have done it without you.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: Keep up with WBC electronically by joining the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) Facebook group and the BPA_WBC Twitter Page. You can also easily find us in the Boardgame Geek Forums under Gaming Related, Conventions, WBC.

DROZD WINS GETTYSBURG: The 4th BPA Gettysburg PBeM tournament has concluded with Ted Drozd triumphant over Jim Tracy in the Final. Jim took the South for a 5.0 bid. Both players agreed that one-sided dice led to anearly North victory. The Confederates attacked on their opening turn and suffered a double loss, and matters did not improve from that point forward. The Union was able to hold McPherson’s Woods all throughout July 1. Thus, the Confederates were never able to unite the two wings of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the Union was able to defeat Ewell’s II Corps in detail. With little hope of victory, the Rebels surrendered on Turn 7.

To get to the Final, Ted had won three contests as the Union and one as the Confederates, while Jim had won three straight as the Rebels. In one semifinal, Jim, taking the Grey for a 5.0 bid, bested #26 Andy Choptiany, the lowest seed remaining and already the Rookie of the Year for his top play in this event. In the other semifinal, Ted dethroned defending champ and #1 seed Mike Pacheco, who had bid 1.0 for the South. 3rd through 6th place finishers were therefore 3, Mike Pacheco, 4, Andy Choptiany, 5, Dan Overland, and 6, Allen Kaplan.

The Union dominated play in Rounds 1-2 with 13 wins in 20 tries, and ultimately won 15 of the 27 contests. There was one bid for the Federals, 22 for the Rebels, and four games with no bid. Those bids were in a fairly narrow range, 1.0 to 5.0. The average bid was 3.43 for the South for the 22 games featuring such a bid. Updated laurel totals can be found on the Gettysburg page.

TRIMMER TAKES ADEL VERPFLICHTET PBeM: Aran Warszawski sprinted out to what seemed an unstoppable lead almost as soon as the championship match began. But in the final 4/2, 2/1, and 5/3 spaces, he paused just long enough to cycle thieves through the jail and for Chris Trimmer to catch up and go two spaces beyond Aran’s finish for the win. In a pattern reminiscent of last year, Chris qualified for the final with the best second place in the semifinals (edging out sixth place, Bob Hamel). Earlier Chris qualified for the semifinals on the strength of four second place finishes in the preliminaries. That’s close enough for hand grenades, horseshoes, nuclear war, and Adel Verpflichtet! Trailing just behind, but not able to overcome Aran’s lead, were Haakon Monsen, Greg Thatcher, and Derek Landel. See all the details at gameaholics.com/adv_tournament.htm! and check out the updated Laurels list.

VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC PBeM: Come one and come all! Admirals of the Cardboard Pacific are invited to join the Victory in the Pacific PBEM Single-Elimination tournament scheduled for a Sept. 15 start. Can you stem the Imperial Japanese Onslaught? Can you bring the fleet back from losses at Pearl Harbor to overcome? Or will the rising sun creep over wave and island to dominate the Pacific? Please check out the format at gameaholics.com/vitp_format/vitp_bpa_format.htm and join by emailing john@gameaholics.com! You can check out current and past action as well as sample games at gameaholics.com/vitp_tournament.htm!

TZOLK’IN STARTS IN OCTOBER: The Second BPA PBeM tournament for the dynamic worker placement game (loosely) based on the Mayan calendar will be played on the boiteajeux.net game portal and all participants will get the chance to play six games in the preliminary rounds (roughly between October and March) with the top eight players advancing to the semifinals. Visit epworthian.wordpress.com/tournament-format to view the tournament format, and email Rob Flowers at rpf1@mindspring.com by Oct. 18 to enter.

PBeM LAURELS UPDATED: Last month’s reported PBeM tournament finishes for March Madness, Pro Golf and Tzolk'in were announced without the usual Event page updates due to the press of WBC commitments. You can now find those reports and their updated laurel totals online.

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Remember…all of the above PBeM fun is free to current BPA members. Others may qualify with a $10 Email membership in the year the event starts. All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for the balance of that calendar year. You need not keep your membership current in order to finish a PBeM event. Players may join the BPA throughout the year. See the BPA Terms page for details.

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BPA members who would like to see an email tournament for their favorite game are encouraged to step forward as the GM of such an event. BPA does not run tournaments. Rather, we are an organization of gamers lending support to one another so such events can happen. No one cares as much about your hobby as you do. Get involved. See the requirements to host a BPA email tournament at abovethefields.com/top_pbem/

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